Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 15:05:29 -0400
From: Jennifer Lankford <silverwings4ever@hotmail.com>
Subject: And I Swear - Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Here I am again, sitting in front of another black Word
document, waiting for inspiration to come along. Little pictures of
Backstreet Boys dancing in my head. But yet, I don't know them, and I
don't own them. And I don't know anyone they know. This is all fiction
of course. This D-O-E-S-N-O-T deal with the killing/suicide of AJ MCLEAN!
LET'S GET THAT STRAIGHT NOW! Any Backstreet Boys fan knows that AJ's
real name is Alexander James ~underlines James 5 times for Nifty~ McLean.
Yes, it says he killed himself but, he staged it, boo, I told you the
truth, kill me now. But I have to have something to think about before I
go to sleep so, this is real to me, just another world I can get lost in
till it comes to an end. silverwings4ever@hotmail.com if you want to
contact me, http://www.angelfire.com/music2/slipupwizshs/index.html if
you want more stories or pictures of the characters or just about
anything my little mind can come up with.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And I Swear - Chapter 5

Tom quickly shut his eyes when he heard the bedroom door open. He heard
Amy go back to the couch and go to sleep. 15 minutes later he heard the
door open again and heard cowboy boots hitting the hardwood floor quietly
as James tried not to wake either Amy or himself up. He felt James come
up to him, brush some of the hair off his face and bent down.

"I don't know how much you know, if anything. But if you ruin my life
that I've created, I will shoot to kill." He heard James say softly.

Tom didn't move, nor did his breathing change. He felt James move away
from him and heard the front door of the apartment open and close softly.

Tom opened his eyes and looked around the room. He had gotten' a little
bit of strength back. He tried to sit up and succeeded in getting himself
into a sitting position. He never thought in his life that he would break
a sweat, trying to sit up in bed.

Tom looked over to the side, on the end-table and saw that his cell phone
was sitting there. It was a little beat up but, it looked like it would
still work. He reached slowly and carefully and finally got close enough
to grab it. He automatically dialed the Howie Dorough's number and
waited for it to connect.

"Hello?" he heard Howie answer.


"Howie, it's Tom, I know where AJ is." I said softly.

"Great, thank god, so he is alive?"

"Yes, more than alive if anything."

"Good news. Now when are you bringing him to me."

"Umm.... I can't right now. I had an accident coming here and now I
can't really move, I broke a couple of ribs and it's impossible for me
to move right now. But I am in AJ's apartment and I have access to just
about everything he owns."

"Fantastic, I want to know where he has been since he left, why, and how
he got there."

"Well, I can't ask anyone in town about him."

"Why not?"

"They think he's somebody entirely different."

"Seriously? How? He couldn't of changed that much."

"He did, believe me. It's 6 am here and he was up at 5 to go help heard
cattle at a ranch outside of town, he won't be back till 4 when he gets
the bar ready to open up."

"Bar?"

"He owns a bar named `Road's End'."

"That's pretty unbelievable."

"I know but, when I was in the accident, I was brought here to his bar
because they don't have a hospital close enough, I'm stuck on his couch
right now, he has to wait on me hand an foot at the moment."

"Hmm..."

"Yeah... I know."

"Well, as soon as you're able, I want you to find out as much as
possible about AJ."

"Ok, will do."

Tom looked up from the cell phone and saw Amy looking at him. Tom's
mouth fell open and tried to explain what was going on, but Amy got up
and grabbed the cell phone out of his hand.

"Who is this and what do you want with James?" Amy asked angrily.

"What buisness of it is yours?" Howie said.

"I'm his daughter, I have a right to know, now what do you want with him
that you can't get your lazy ass up and come talk to him yourself?"

"Do you know who you are talking to?"

"Howie Dorough, former member of the Backstreet Boys, and your point is?"

"I think I ought to get a little bit more respect than that,"

"Well, when you hire a detective to do your dirty work, I call it just
plain lazy and stupid."

"Whatever, put Tom back on the phone."

"Whatever." Amy copied Howie.

"What's going on in here?" James said from the doorway.

Amy looked at James, "Why don't you ask him?" Amy said and held out the
phone.

James walked over and took the phone from Amy. "Hello?"

"Who is this now?"

"The owner of this house, now who are you and why are you calling here?"

"No, I want to know who this is."

James looked at Amy. She looked angry, like she was about to kill
someone.

James put 2 and 2 together. He took a deep breath.

James gulped. "Howie?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"You have the wrong number," James said and turned off the phone.

James looked at Tom and then at Amy.

"I didn't tell him," Amy said and held up her hands.

"I believe you." James said and turned to Tom.

James took the cell phone and walked out the door. Amy followed behind
him, trying to keep up with his fast pace.

"What are you going to do?" Amy asked.

"Kill him. And the cell phone."

Just then the cell phone started ringing.

James grabbed a gun out from under the bar and walked outside. He dropped
the cell phone on the ground and then stomped on it a couple times, then
he took the safety off the gun and shot the cell 5 times.

Amy stood back in shock.

James looked at Amy and tried to stay calm. "I've rebuilt my entire life
so that I wouldn't have to deal with any press or pictures. I just want
to lead a normal life and I thought I had covered my tracks. But I guess
not well enough."

James dropped the gun and fell to his knees. "Its over, it's all over."
James started crying.

Amy walked over and dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around James.
"It's not over, we'll find someway to fix this, I promise, I'm not
letting you go back into that business."

James wrapped his arms around her and cried into her shoulder. "No, it's
over, they found me, people will come, want to know where I am,
eventually find me, and drag me back because I have contracts, I have
people that still want me. I don't want that anymore. I want to be here,
where I can sit on the front porch and drink tea without anyone asking me
for an autograph or someone calling me and telling me that I have to be
somewhere like I'm a piece of equipment."

Amy looked up and saw Debbie, the owner of the drug store, come out of
the store. She quickly walked over to them.

"Goodness gracious, what's going on? What's wrong?" she asked.

"James' past caught up with him." Was all Amy said.

"Oh my, I heard it wasn't the best past." Debbie said. "Is there
anything I can do?"

"Yeah, if anybody new comes into town, looking for AJ McLean or Alexander
James McLean, tell them that there is nobody here by that name, that you
know everyone in town and you know no one by that name."

"But why, I mean I don't know an AJ McLean anyway." Debbie said.

James cried harder into Amy's shoulder. Amy gulped. "Just say it,
please? And tell everyone who owns store, people will start coming around
soon, asking about him and I don't want them to find him.

More people were starting to come out of their stores/homes and gathered
around Amy and James.

"Debbie?" Amy asked. "Can you go get Doc Riley? I don't think the bar
will be open tonight, James isn't up to it." James had passed out crying
on her shoulder.

"Okay, I'll go get her. Shane, pick James up and go put him in bed while
I go get Doc." Debbie said to her son who was standing behind her.

"Okay, ma, I will." Shane got on his knees and took James off of Amy and
stood back up. Amy got up and followed Shane into the bar. Shane walked
back into the apartment and walked across the family room where Tom was
and into the bedroom.

"What's wrong with him?" Tom asked.

"It's your fault, you should know, you did this to him." Amy said and
walked up to Tom and punched him.

Tom grabbed his face while Amy went back to James bedroom.

"I'll take it from here Shane, thanks from getting him in here."

"Sok' he's really light, 150 or so."

Amy smiled and took off James' boots and socks. Then his pants and
shirt. She moved his legs and put the blanket on top of him and pulled
the holder from his hair, letting it fall on the pillowcase and his
shoulders. James moaned and tears came from his eyes. My sat there and
calmed James, who was asleep.

"I'll make it better, I promise, I'm not letting anyone take you away
from this town."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tell me what you think! silverwings4ever@hotmail.com